Headline News

24, August 2016

US has urged its citizens to leave Gaza ⁰

The United States has urged its citizens staying in Gaza to leave the coastal enclave “as soon as possible” over the Israeli bombardments of the area.

The warning came after the Israeli military Sunday pounded targets in the Gaza Strip and injured four, including two in the town of Beit Hanun.

The State Department warned Tuesday against “all travel” to the Gaza Strip and “urges those present to depart as soon as possible when border crossings are open.”

“The security environment within Gaza and on its borders is dangerous and volatile,” the department added. It also said that Americans have been killed or wounded in the Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 2015. However, it added that “there is no indication that US citizens were specifically targeted based on nationality.”

Presstv

24, August 2016

Hillary Clinton has taken a 12-percentage point lead over Donald Trump ⁰

US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has taken a 12-percentage point lead over her Republican rival, Donald Trump, in the run-up to the 2016 US presidential race, according to a new poll. The Reuters/Ipsos poll, released on Tuesday, shows the former secretary of state has 45 percent of the votes as compared to the New York billionaire having only a 33-percent support. Another 22 percent wouldn’t pick either candidate.

Clinton has led Trump throughout most of the 2016 presidential campaign. But her latest lead represents a stronger level of support than polls showed in recent editions of the poll. In the previous polls, the former First Lady’s lead over the real estate tycoon ranged between 3 and 9. One poll — McClatchy/Marist survey – conducted early August, however, found Clinton 15 points ahead of Trump.

Clinton’s lead over Trump slimmed slightly in the Reuters/Ipsos poll in a four-way match-up that included Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein. She received 41 percent to his 33 percent. In that scenario, Johnson earned 7 percent, while Stein bagged 2 percent. The poll was conducted from August 18 to 22 among a national sample of 1,115 likely voters. The margin of error is 3 points.

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses supporters at the James A. Rhodes Arena on August 22, 2016 in Akron, Ohio. (AFP photo)

The Reuters poll noted that at this point of the race four years ago, public support for candidates was higher during the presidential election between Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney.

“Those who are wavering right now are just as likely to be thinking about supporting a third-party candidate instead, and not between Clinton and Trump,” said Tom Smith, who directs the Center for the Study of Politics and Society at the University of Chicago.

According to Pew Research Center poll, released last week, a majority of Americans hold an unfavorable view of Trump, with 55 percent saying he would make a poor or terrible president, while 45 percent saying the same about Clinton.

Thirty-one percent say Clinton would make a good or great president, while 27 percent say the same of Trump. Those who back Trump say, 81 percent to 11 percent, that life is worse now for US citizens than it was 50 years ago. However, Clinton supporters — 59 percent — say life is better than five decades ago and 19 percent say it is worse.

Presstv

23, August 2016

Cameroon lawyers have denounced a hundred sentences of capital punishment in the Far North region ⁰

Legal practitioners in Cameroon have denounced the mistreatment of people sentenced in connection with the fight against terrorism. Cameroon Concord News has gathered that between July 2015 and July 2016, the courts in the Far North Region of Cameroon have delivered over a hundred sentences of capital punishment.

Barrister Mohamad Al Amine, lawyer of the Cameroon Bar, practicing in the city of Maroua who confirmed the information also revealed that these death sentences all involved suspected Boko Haram militants. Lawyer Mohamad Al Amine who is one of only seven lawyers in the region ravaged by rampant attacks orchestrated by the Nigerian Islamic sect Boko Haram deplored the conditions under which those convicted, including “more innocent” are judged.

A journalist reporting for Cameroon Intelligence Report recently opined that the defense of all terrorism related cases have been left to CPDM appointed lawyers for a fee of 5,000 CFA francs per accused. Cameroon-info.net noted in a story on the Boko Haram trials that most of the lawyers appointed by the state counsel cannot even gain access to case files let alone to visit their clients. The prisoners have no contact with their families, lawyers and doctors.

Cameroon government spokesman and minister of communication, Issa Tchiroma has failed to provide a detailed report on the goings-on in the Far North region. We now can reveal that our forces of law and order backed by the CPDM regime are only interested in applying the so-called new terrorism law voted by the national assembly. Calls by members of the Cameroon Bar Association for more humanity in the treatment of those sentenced to death are being ignored by the Biya Francophone Beti-Ewondo regime.

The testimony about the poor treatment of those on the death row in the Far North Region was made public during the launching of activities by the Network of Cameroonian Lawyers against the death penalty in Cameroon (RACOPEM) that took place in Limbe . Members of the body have adopted a firm stand to abolish the death penalty. For them, this type of condemnation not only violates the constitution and international treaties signed by the government but is also not effective in deterring criminals. Barrister Eta Besong Junior, former president of the Cameroon Bar has called on his colleagues to fight this battle with courage and abnegation.

By Rita Akana with files from Cameroon-info.net

23, August 2016

Buhari-dog-naming palaver: Nigerian Head of State influencing arrest and incarceration of Joachim Chinakwe ⁰

President Muhammadu Buhari has been accused of influencing the arrest and incarceration of the man, Joachim Chinakwe, who named his dog after President Muhammadu Buhari. A section of Nigerians reacting to the arrest and incarceration alleged that Buhari was masterminding the travails of the man. Joachim Iroko, was remanded on Monday, August 22, at the Ibara Prison following his arraignment at the Ota Magistrate Court 2, Ogun state. He was charged to court by the police with conduct likely to cause breach of the peace, in a case with suit number MOT/617c/2016.

According to the prosecutor, Inspector Itaita Ebibomini, the accused committed the offence on Saturday, August 13, 2016, at the Hausa section of Ketere Market in Sango-Ota in the Ota Magisterial District. But the accused, who was represented by a counsel, U. Michael, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The chief magistrate, B. J. Ojikutu, admitted Iroko to bail in the sum of N50,000 with two sureties in like sum, adding that the sureties must be regular tax payers in the state. The accused was subsequently taken to the Ibara Prison pending when he fulfills his bail condition.

However, the jailing of the trader has fueled the narrative that President Buhari might have masterminded the incarceration of the man to teach him a lesson. Some Nigerians have accused the president of displaying dictatorial tendencies for persecuting the man because he named his dog ‘Buhari’.

Naij.com

23, August 2016

Demands for new national identity card on the rise in Yaounde ⁰

300 demands for the new national identity cards are recorded daily at the Yaounde 10^th District Public Security Station; one of the four pilot identification posts set up in the capital city to issue national identity cards under the new identification system set up by the service provider, GEMALTO.

At 10.00 am yesterday, August 22, 2016, crowds of citizens requesting new national identity cards could be seen lined up in the courtyard of the 10^th District Public Security Station in the Bastos neighbourhood. Guided each day by officers and men of the station as from 4:00 am, those seeking the national identity card for the first time or after the loss of the former, go through stages that involve writing their names on lists as they come, submitting their documents in the secretariat and proceeding to the identification posts where two computers integrated with cameras, electronic fingerprints and signature pads as well scanner-printers record details before a receipt is delivered. Notices outlining requirements and costs are pasted on walls to guide users.

“It takes just 10 minutes when the Internet connection is at its best. Out of 300 demands recorded daily, we issue at least 60 receipts,” stated the Head of the Police Station, Senior Superintendent of Police Ze née Fouda Isabelle. Despite the huge number of requests, she said operations were going on normally since the day after the August 9 2016 launch of the new system. Besides the cost per card that stands at FCFA 2,800, instead of FCFA 5,000 under the old system, users say the procedure is shorter and police officers more welcoming. “I am very satisfied,” Bogni Brondon Richard, a high school leaver from the West Region told Cameroon Tribune after receiving his receipt for his first ever identity card.

“We no longer do fingerprints with ink but use electronic machines instead. This new system will limit fraud,” said Fridoline Elomo Mvogo, a Yaounde resident who received a receipt for a new identity card after she lost the first. According to Senior Superintendent Ze Isabelle, challenges recorded so far include users’ ignorance of requirements and influence-peddling by some personalities for their acquaintances or “protégés” to be given preferential treatment.

Cameroon Tribune

23, August 2016

Hillary Clinton says allegations about her health were part of a wacky strategy ⁰

US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has jokingly asked a TV host to check her pulse and “make sure if I’m alive,” in an attempt to dismiss a series of rumors about her declining health. Recently, a series of unsubstantiated reports have questioned Clinton’s well-being, claiming that she never fully recovered from a blood clot that she suffered in her brain in late 2012.The rumors gained more momentum after Republican nominee Donald Trump questioned the former first lady’s well-being.

Clinton, 68, addressed the issue during an appearance on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel” on Monday night, saying the allegations were part of a “wacky strategy” by the GOP to gain more votes. “Back in October, the National Enquirer said I’d be dead in six months. So with every breath I take, I feel like it’s a new lease on life,” the former secretary of state joked.

She also took a jab at Trump by calling the 70-year-old “as healthy as a horse.” The New York businessman had said in Ohio on Monday that Clinton “lacks the mental and physical stamina” to run the country. Also on Monday, Trump’s close adviser, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, raised doubts about Clinton’s health by claiming that she was “tired” and recently “looked sick.”

Clinton’s campaign fired back by advising people to read about the former mayor withdrawal from the 2000 Senate race which, ironically, was directly related to his health. Dr. Drew Pinsky, a famous addiction medicine specialist; Sean Hannity, Fox News host and a senior Trump adviser; and the notorious pharma executive Martin Shkreli are among a long list of celebrities who have contributed to the conspiracy.

A viral video on Youtube, which has more than 3 million views, claims that Clinton is suffering from a plethora of diseases such as autism and a brain tumor. In response, Clinton’s campaign has published a medical note from her physician that concludes that she is healthy.

Presstv

23, August 2016

Nigeria: 30 gunboats, patrol vessel commissioned by the Navy ⁰

The Nigerian Navy has commissioned 30 locally made and nine Sri Lankan gunboats into service, and unveiled an indigenous 38 metre long patrol vessel. The vessels were commissioned in Lagos on 17 August in a ceremony attended by Ministry of Defence Permanent Secretary Danjuma Sheni and Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ete-Ibas, amongst others. The 30 gunboats, which are 8.2 metres long, were built by the Epenal Boat Yard in Port Harcourt. Officials said they would be used to patrol the Niger Delta. The vessels displayed last Wednesday appear to be armed with ST Kinetics 40AGL automatic grenade launchers.

Sheni said another 20 of the locally built gunboats would be delivered to the Nigerian Navy. Ete-Ibas was reported by local media as saying that said the Epenal-built boats were an improvement on 30 others unveiled in Port Harcourt in February and featured modifications that improved sea-keeping, amongst others. He said the vessels contribute to Nigeria’s national security and prosperity and come at half the cost of acquiring vessels from overseas, something that is important as “mounting operational challenges in the face of [the] progressively dwindling economy necessitated the navy to explore more cost saving options through local construction of these patrol boats.”

Nine of the boats were earlier acquired second hand from Sri Lanka for $4.2 million. They were handed over on 6 May in a ceremony in Sri Lanka. According to the Sri Lankan Navy, six Arrow class boats and three Wave Rider class boats were handed over in what the Navy said was its first international defence sale. The 14.5 metre long and 3.5 metre wide inshore patrol craft are powered by two 350 HP engines. They are equipped with a radar system, GPS and electronic compass. The contract included training for Nigerian personnel in Sri Lanka.

In addition to the smaller gunboats, the Nigerian Navy will receive a locally built patrol boat, which was apparently also commissioned last week. NNS Karaduwa is the second Seaward Defence Boat to be built in Nigeria and is 38.9 metres long. In June 2012 the Nigerian Navy commissioned the NNS Andoni, Nigeria’s first locally built warship, into service, and laid the keel for the second Seaward Defence Boat. The 33 metre NNS Andoni had its keel laid at the Naval Dockyard in December 2007, with full construction beginning in January the following year.

Also seen at the Nigerian Naval Dockyard last week was the Ekpe-class patrol boat NNS Damisa and two of the three Combattante IIIB vessels, which were having work carried out at the dry dock. Several other vessels were also seen in Channels Television footage at the yard, including a Yola-class patrol boat.

Senate Committee Chairman on the Navy, Isa Aman-Isa, was reported by Nigeria’s National Daily Newspaper as saying “our plan is to increase the [naval] platforms with the hope that the force would get more from the loan from China-African relations of about $60 billion. In the 2017 budget, we have started making adequate provision for the navy to get more funding. By next year, the issue of Niger Delta Avengers would be a thing of the past.”

Last week the Nigerian government contracted Almarine, a division of John Holt Plc, to manufacture naval vessels, reports This Day. The company said it would manufacture gunboats, as well as ambulance boats, patrol boats and transport boats that may be needed by the Nigerian Navy.

Defenceweb

23, August 2016

Camair-Co: Ernest Dikum takes command ⁰

After stagger-a-staggering with Jean Nana Sandjo, the Biya Francophone Beti-Ewondo regime finally decided to move away from their man. At the end of the extraordinary board meeting of Camair-Co that held on Monday, August 22, 2016, Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o, the head of the transport sector in Cameroon announced that 49 years old Ernest Dikum was the new general manager of the company.

Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o reportedly profiled the new GM of Camair-Co at the end of the Douala session and assigned new objectives. Said the Transport Minister “Ernest Dikum is a great specialist in air transport. He is also an experienced man whose skills and qualifications in the field of air transport are proven and universally recognized.”

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that after graduating from the Higher Institute of Tourism and Economy in Rabat, Morocco, Ernest Dikum in 1992, got an additional qualification in the management of database systems from a Computer Institute in the United States in 1996. This was followed by an MBA at Usa College in partnership with Coventry University in Britain in 2013.

His professional experience and expertise are particularly eloquent which explains why President Paul Biya decided to entrust the General Directorate of Camair-Co to him. Ernest Dikum has an outstanding career with Emirates airline, which is considered one of the best in the world. Within this renowned company, Mr. Ndikum has held since 2004, many strategic positions in relation to the African markets including the position of Regional Director for the West Africa region and Sahelian Senegal.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

22, August 2016

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy announces ambition to reconquer Élysée ⁰

Nicolas Sarkozy has announced he will seek his party’s nomination to stand in next year’s French presidential election. The rightwinger, who was nicknamed “the hyper-president” for his frenetic term in power from 2007 to 2012, had made no secret of his ambition to reconquer the Élysée palace and avenge his 2012 defeat by the Socialist François Hollande

After weeks of suspense in which he grabbed media headlines by presenting an increasingly hardline stance on national identity and the place of Islam in France, Sarkozy launched his campaign with an announcement on social media and a link to the first chapter of a book, Everything for France, which he will publish this week.

“The next five years will be filled with danger but also with hope,” he wrote. He listed what he said were the five major challenges facing France, including defending French identity, restoring lost competitiveness and enforcing state authority.

Sarkozy said France’s “top battle” was over how “to defend our lifestyle without being tempted to cut ourselves off from the rest of the world”.

In his fight to win his party’s nomination, the 61-year-old candidate is putting forward a platform of policies that veer even further to the far right than in 2012, when he set out to win over voters from Marine Le Pen’s Front National.

He wants to ban the Muslim headscarf from universities and public companies, limit the French nationality rights of children born to foreign parents, and Alain Juppé meaning Muslim and Jewish children would no longer be offered a substitute meal.

He has also scoffed at what he called “legal niceties” in the fight against terrorism, prompting the left to warn that his treatment of suspected jihadis could be akin to that of Guantánamo Bay.

For the first time, the French right and centre is holding an open contest to choose its presidential candidate. Anyone on the electoral register can vote if they pay €2 (£1.72) and sign a pledge saying they adhere to “the values of the right and centre”. Up to three or four million people could turn out to vote in the two-round ballot on 20 and 27 November.

Sarkozy is the challenger and not the favourite in the right’s primary race. The leader in the polls and currently France’s favourite politician is Alain Juppé the mayor of Bordeaux and a former prime minister, who served as Sarkozy’s foreign minister.

Juppé, 71, has undergone a staggering image transformation. Twenty years ago he was the most loathed prime minister in modern times after his pension changes brought 2 million people on to the streets in protest. Now he is seen as a calm, elder statesman and a moderate, pushing pro-business structural reform and less divisive on identity issues.

Sarkozy believes that the climate of fear and anxiety in France after the deaths of more than 230 people in terrorist attack claimed by Islamists in the past 19 months means the nation needs a man of authority such as himself.

One hurdle for Sarkozy beyond winning over right and centre-right sympathisers is his lasting unpopularity among the wider French population who still dislike his abrasive personality and his hard-to-shake-off label of “president of the rich”.

He must also get around his lacklustre economic record in office – he promised to restore the values of work and reward, yet left France with many more unemployed – as well as judicial investigations into party financing relating to his 2012 presidential campaign, in which he denies any wrongdoing.

The Guardian

22, August 2016

Cameroon Airlines-Camair-Co: From Boom to Bust ⁰

Some 34 years ago, Cameroon Airline Company was flying high. The Ahmadou Ahidjo responsible leadership led to a booming economy and made Cameroon Airline Company the fastest growing and the city of Douala the most competitive aviation market in West and Central Africa. The company acquired new carriers and bought new jets. To be sure, Cameroon Airlines ordered Boeing and Airbus jetliners worth millions of dollars.

On November the 6^th 1982, the office of the president of the republic changed hands from Ahmadou Ahidjo to Biya Paul in a peaceful atmosphere. There was no global recession but a sharp increase in passenger numbers (top CPDM government officials, their wives, children, mistresses and housemaids) traveling to and from Europe without paying a dime to the airlines company. This was bad news for Cameroon Airlines, sad for the Cameroonian people but joy to the new comers in government. It was the beginning of rigor and moralization of the Cameroon airlines company.

Cameroon Airlines was plagued by financial difficulties, which came along with a poor safety and maintenance record. On 16 September 2005, the airline was indefinitely banned by the French Civil Aviation Authority from operating its prestigious Paris route due to safety concerns that had arisen following aircraft check-ups that had revealed failures to meet international norms in the loading, transport of dangerous materials, navigation documentation and tire maintenance.

In an effort to save the airline from bankruptcy, the Biya regime signed an agreement with SN Air holding, the parent company of Brussels Airlines to ensure the future funding. The plans did not materialize, though. Instead, on 11 September 2006, the launch of Camair-Co as new national airline was announced. Cameroon Airlines stayed operational until March 2008, though flight operations had only taken place during irregular intervals over these last years. Things have taken a dramatic u turn and we of this publication can now reveal that the so-called Camair-Co has only two planes. The small flight which runs the Douala-Baffoussam route and the 114 seater that goes to the Northern regions.

Camair-Co’s Boeing 767-300 code named (The Dja), which recently returned to Cameroon after six months of inactivity following a routine technical control with the Ethiopian Airline hangar in Addis Abba, is now stagger-a-staggering. After very intensive and productive investigation following a leak published by Alafnet.com,Cameroon Intelligence Report wishes to sound a note of caution that air passengers should avoid using Camair-Co’s Boeing 767-300.

The aircraft cockpit of the Dja completely destroyed by water which entered through a window that was deliberately left open will cost the company billions of FCFA. We understand that there is a war currently going on between the Minister Edgar Alain Mebo Ngo’o faction and the Akame Mfoumou gang. There are reports that Camair-Co plans to put the Dja back on the skies without proper technical checks. President Biya is aware of the situation through one of his relatives serving with the company in Douala. Camair-Co’s unofficial debt stands at 74 billion FCFA, though Transport Minister Alain Mebo Ngo’o keeps incessantly flashing out signals to the Cameroonian people that it is below 40billions FCFA.

Our intelligence officers who have been working on this Camair-Co saga hinted that the “Dja Window Rain Water” incident remains a diabolic harsh in-house ploy to enable the general manager, Jean Nana Sandjo lease an aircraft through AJW leasing company for the Hajj pilgrimage.

At the time of the window neglect accident in Douala, Jean Nana Sandjo was already in France negotiating with the AJW Group for a plane. Curiously, Nana Sandjo is the representative of the said leasing company and banks a 6 %commission on every deal with Camair-co. Jean Nana Sandjo’s list of financial crimes is long involving too many dodgy deals.

This is more bad news for Cameroon as Jean Nana Sandjo, an acolyte of Eduard Akame Mfoumou-a behind the scene baron of the CPDM regime has pushed Camair-Co to be weighed down by overcapacity, debt and the CPDM government’s willingness to provide bailouts running to the tune of 200 billion FCFA. With just 2 carriers, Camair-Co has been forced to slash their operations and reduce ticket prices. Cameroon aviation is badly in need of a regime change-a decent Anglophone citizen to run the affairs of this company.

The Southern Cameroons change will include deferring aircraft deliveries, cancelling orders, rationalizing routes and trimming staff to stave off financial collapse. Our chief economic correspondent noted that it’s going to be tough, but it can be done if Biya mean business. Our nation is at the mercy of Biya, his family and his appointees. Every aspect of Cameroon’s economic life has been hardest hit by the consortium of CPDM crime syndicates.

CPDM officials say Camair-Co may smile again and resume normal operations once another bailout package is made available by the ministry of transport. But Alfred Bate Bawak former CPDM UK Section Vice President say that it may be difficult because the industry has yet to solve a basic problem: too many airlines such as Air France, Air Brussels, Ethiopian Air Lines flying too many flights in a country that, despite its economic growth, is relatively poor.

Lowering fares may attract more African travellers but it may not improve the overall financial health of the industry controlled by corrupt officials. To make profits, Camair-Co needs an Anglophone marketer at the head to shift business models. Above all, Camair-Co has to think, act, breathe and be low cost. That doesn’t happen overnight with an 84 years old man as chief executive.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai